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Gordie Howe, ‘Mr. Hockey,’ dies at 88

The legendary Detroit Red Wings star played in 1,767 games and is the only NHL player to have suited up in five decades. He retired as the NHL’s all-time leading scorer and is considered by many to be “the greatest hockey player ever.”

Gordie Howe, the legendary Detroit Red Wings player who was the embodiment of Canadian hockey, died Friday. He was 88.

Howe, who was known simply as “Mr. Hockey,” died at his son Murray’s home in Sylvania, Ohio.

“Mr. Hockey left peacefully, beautifully, and w no regrets,” Murray Howe said in a text to The Associated Press.

Howe spent more than a quarter of a century in an NHL uniform. He retired from the Hartford Whalers in 1980 when he was 52, and he remains among the game’s all-time scoring leaders.

He collected 1,850 points in 1,767 games, over a career spent mostly with the Red Wings. He won the Hart Trophy as the league’s most valuable player six times. Howe led the NHL in scoring six times, as well.

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“Unfortunately we lost the greatest hockey player ever today, but more importantly the nicest man I have ever met,” Wayne Gretzky tweeted Friday.

“Sending our thoughts and prayers to the Howe family and to the millions of hockey fans who like me loved Gordie Howe. RIP Mr. Hockey.”

The Red Wings also posted condolences on Twitter: “Thoughts and prayers to the Howe family as Gordie Howe passes away at the age of 88.”

Howe passed away peacefully with his family by his side.

“Gordie had a special connection with Red Wings fans and was always touched by their commitment,” the Howe family said in a statement. “We are celebrating the life of a devoted husband, father, grandfather, great-grandfather and a friend to all.”

Howe is the only NHL player to have suited up in five decades. And even after the emergence of superstars such as Gretzky and Bobby Orr, he was still one of the most recognizable names in the sport.

His image — in cartoon form — has appeared on The Simpsons, his name enshrined both in the Hockey Hall of Fame and in the permanent hockey lexicon, where a “Gordie Howe hat trick” is earned by a player who scores a goal, earns an assist and fights in one game.

“I think growing up when you hear the name Gordie Howe, the name was synonymous with how you felt the game should be played,” said Maple Leafs president Brendan Shanahan, himself a former Detroit Red Wing. “There wasn’t a job on the ice that Gordie said, ‘I’ll leave that for somebody else.’

“He was built to be a hockey player,” said former teammate Paul Henderson. “He was strong as an ox. He was mean as a rattlesnake and you treaded lightly when you came around him.

“He had a very heavy shot and a soft touch. Old-school hockey. That was Gordie Howe.”

Howe had been in declining health. Two years ago, his family announced he had suffered a serious stroke, and later underwent an experimental stem cell treatment.

News of his death spread far beyond the hockey world on Friday. “It's a very sad moment for all of us,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said during a news conference in Oshawa. “His career inspired and gave rise to many, many dreams of many Canadians.

“He was a gentleman but he was also a tough guy.”

“His impact on the Red Wings organization is still evident today,” former Red Wings captain Steve Yzerman said. “I travel the world and constantly hear stories from people who love the Wings and share memories of the glory days when Gordie and his teammates ruled the NHL.”

Howe was born in Floral, Sask., on March 31, 1928. He was one of nine children, growing up in the teeth of the Great Depression. In a story that would become a legend, his first pair of skates arrived five years after he was born, included in a sack of items a neighbour was selling to make ends meet.

He made his NHL debut at age 18 on Oct. 16, 1946, when he scored his first NHL goal. He would go on to score another 800 more, establishing a record that would stand for decades.

Howe's career stats

In 1964, Sports Illustrated quoted an unnamed opponent who described what it was like to face off against Howe, who was known as a gentle and polite spirit off the ice.

“He is everything you would expect the ideal athlete to be,” the opponent told the magazine. “He is soft-spoken, deprecating and thoughtful. He is also the most vicious, cruel and mean man I’ve ever met in a hockey game.”

Howe was muscular, and strong. He was also known to have a good memory on the ice. And it was suggested that he worked with his elbows the way an artist might use a brush.

“The trouble is he knows how to shade the rules,” an unnamed Chicago player told Sports Illustrated. “You do something to him, he won’t let on you got to him. But when you come out of the next scramble, you’ve got four or five stitches you don’t know how you got.”

As former Toronto Maple Leafs general manager Brian Burke described him, a couple of years ago: “He was a quintessential Canadian power forward — tougher than a night in jail, but classy.”

And that was part of his legend, too. On Friday, social media filled with anecdotes of interactions with Howe. Star-struck parents and their children meeting him, hands in his pockets an airport. They spoke of gentle, everyday interactions with a superstar.

Laurie Kempton, an Ottawa resident, told a short story of her great aunt, who had lived in Detroit and loved the Red Wings. Kempton said her great aunt attended home games well into her 80s, and when she died: “She was buried with a deck of cards, a bottle of Crown Royal and a picture of Gordie Howe.

“The cards were for a game of euchre with her husband in heaven, Crown Royal for a wee tipple & the photo of Howe because she loved the Wings.”

An examination of Howe’s output is something to inspire awe, like wandering the halls of a statistical museum. He finished the 1949-50 season – his fourth in the NHL – with 35 goals. He would score at least 20 goals in each of the next 26 seasons (including his trip to the WHA).

He retired with 801 NHL goals in 1980. That record stood for 14 years until it was broken by Gretzky.

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